How to Add Life to Your Instruments

Digital audio workstations give the music producer new ways to write musical passages. All you need is a mouse or trackpad and you can program in notes for any instrument that you have on a computer. While this convenient and inexpensive method of writing music is effective, it can leave music sounding lifeless.Since you're programming in notes instead of playing them in on a musical instrument, your musical passages run the risk of sounding robotic. The velocities or the force at which each note is played are all the same, and the length of each note is perfectly quantized to your piano roll grid.When instruments are played live, the velocities and note lengths are never perfect, and they must be changed in order to add realism to your music. By the end of this video, you'll know how to manipulate the velocities and note lengths of your musical passages in the DAW to bring life back to your song.